Watch: they lost their loved ones in terror attacks – and now they’re speaking out

Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, has joined with the families of slain fusilier Lee Rigby, IRA bomb victim Tim Parry, and David Haines, an aid worker who was killed by ISIS in Syria, to film a powerful new video.

Speaking out in a beautiful act of unity, they have urged UK citizens to remain strong and “stand together” in the wake of the recent London terror attacks and Manchester bombing.

Lyn Rigby, who lost her son in 2013 after he was attacked near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, begins the video by saying: “It’s a hard thing to deal with, losing your child, and having to bury your child. It leaves a great big hole in your heart… you’re never the same person.

“Anger is part of the grieving process.”

However, while anger is part of the grieving process, Brendan – whose wife, MP Jo Cox, was fatally shot and stabbed by a neo-Nazi in 2016 – adds: “What the terrorists want is for us to feed their hatred and to turn community against community.”

Mike Haines continues: “There were parts of our community who were trying to use my brother’s death to promote their ideology. That is what they want.

“Terrorists of any type – they want people to carry on the hatred that they support. If we do, then we’re doing the terrorist’s job for them.”

And Colin Parry, the father of the 12-year-old boy killed by the IRA in 1993, agrees, saying: “If it’s just ‘you hit me, I hit you back’, it carries on endlessly. Anger gets a reaction and it perpetuates the problem and makes it greater, and deeper, and more serious.”

Lyn goes on to insist that she does not want Islamophobics to cite her son’s name when attacking people of the Muslim faith.

“To see people bombing mosques, shouting in the streets… you’re showing the terrorists that they’re winning,” she says.

Cox, who is approaching the first anniversary of his wife’s death, continues: “There’s a handful of extremists who decide to prey on this, and my message to them is don’t you dare use our grief to peddle your hatred.”

All four of these incredible individuals finish by stating firmly: “We stand together to show them we’re not afraid.”

The film is part of the #WeStandTogether campaign by The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace.

The charity has been active for over 22 years and works to create safe places for difficult conversations and also delivers learning programmes designed to create agents of change for peace.

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Kayleigh Dray

Kayleigh Dray is editor of Stylist.co.uk, where she chases after rogue apostrophes and specialises in films, comic books, feminism and television. On a weekend, you can usually find her drinking copious amounts of tea and playing boardgames with her friends.